Getting really wound up about politics. Do you? I don't.

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Thumbs up! I'm not from Australia, but from what I've seen, you guys really need a new progressive party. Your Labor party seems more opportunistic and pro-establishment than it does progressive, and your Green Party seems to just have no idea what it is doing (and your Liberal Party appears to be a corporate puppet).

I pay a lot of attention to politics because I know how what happens in Government can affect us.

I hate politics. I don't discuss it and I refuse to argue in it and one of the worst things to ask me is what do I think of Obama or who did I vote for. I don't discuss politics and I avoid it like a plague. I refuse to answer anything about it. If it wasn't such a strong topic and if people didn't get all heated up about it they act like school yard children, I wouldn't be so silent. That's why you don't see me in the PPR forum even if there is drama there. Politics bores me so therefore politic drama will bore me.

I used to be a political junkie, and got very upset over various issues. I gave up on that years ago, when I realized that the major parties are merely different sides of the same coin. Now, I hardly pay any attention at all.

Ok, sorry to go off topic, but . . . you've GOT to be kidding. And yeah, I googled it, so I know you're not, but that's ridiculous.

It's become more and more apparent to me that politics isn't about who is right. In the end it's really about power and ultimately it's about who gets what in terms of material resources. Most ideological rhetoric is just tactics played by interest groups. Interest groups might as well be dogs fighting in the streets over scraps of meat. In times of economic recession we have a zero-sum game going on.

I study politics for a living. TV "news" programs, much like the yellow journalism of the last century, is simultaneously a tool of entertainment and filtered partisan, political information. If you are interested in being artificially upset or want to be part of the choir that is being preached at, then partisan television, radio and web are for you.

I ignore the news in general. If something important happens, you will find out about it, with or without watching the news all the time.

I could be wrong, but as far as I can tell, we have a one-party system masquerading as a two-party system. (I'm speaking of the US, but I think it's basically the same in all the democracies.) It doesn't matter who you vote for - the government always wins.

"Democracy" is a sham, but it is also brilliant - it keeps most of the people fooled most of the time, and also keeps them divided against each other (instead of getting angry at the government). That's why it's the most stable form of government. Also, the constant turnover of politicians is like a regular pressure release - anger builds and builds, and then the guy leaves office and the other half of the population starts building up steam, until someone else takes office. Back and forth it goes, and nothing much ever changes.

Both parties represent the ruling elite, who are invisible behind the scenes. It just seems obvious to me.

The more you learn about politics, the more you realize it's all BS. Just for starters, Democrats are supposedly the party of the working man. Really? So why do 9 out of 10 rich people vote Democrat? Why did all the big Wall Street financiers back the Democrats?

Republicans are supposed to be for "family values", but if so, why do more of them cheat on their spouses than Democrats do? They're for "accountability" and "personal responsibility", but apparently only for poor people - never for the billionaire bankers who crash the whole economy and need trillion dollar bailouts and 0% interest rates to stay in business. They're for "fiscal responsibility", but then they run up the biggest deficits in history, and still have the gall to blame the Democrats for it. Then you have Fox News, which rants and raves about a mosque being built near the 9/11 site in New York. Fine, but isn't it a little strange that the same Saudi businessman financing the mosque is also the second largest shareholder of Fox News?

It's all BS. The Man has his agenda and does what he wants, while the media and politicians do their best to keep us all confused in the dark and at each others throats. And I understand why it has to be this way: if we had a real democracy, or if the Man displayed his cards to the people, then our enemies would also know what's going on. And that would be fatal. (And we do have real enemies - Russia and China mainly, and all the proxies they support, such as Iran, North Korea and probably most of the terrorists, etc., all of which are much, much worse than our governments, however dissatisfied we are with them.)

Politics, like religion and sports, is an outlet for angry people, who would be better off focusing on what they love and getting more of that in their lives.

Don't get me wrong. I have an interest in politics. Most of what comes through the media is useless for gaining a proper understanding of anything. I am interested in making personal changes that help myself and others, and helping others do the same. I think 'top down' politics is at best useless and at worst destructive.

No I'm not kidding... some people are not heterosexual... so to disturb you.

Sorry, didn't make myself clear. Being that I am gay, I am fully aware of the bigotry faced by those who are of a different sexuality. I do NOT find the struggle for civil rights to be ridiculous - I merely find the acronym you used to be absurd. I sincerely apologize for giving the false impression that I was felt your cause is"ridiculous." It is not.

Why... it's still missing some groups, but those are the ones I remember. Or are you impying that it's too long? Though it's only 8 characters and a phone number is longer than that?

Edit: Sorry if I'm a little picky and ya it's long, but it's just kind of a pet peeve of mine to exclude people (though asexuals, pansexuals,etc are still not in that acronym).

Yes. It is unwieldy and awkward to use.

I disagree that it's "only 8 characters" - it's actually 8 (fairly random) WORDS being referenced by the first character of each. It's a meaningless alphabet stew if one doesn't know the words for which those letters stand. If it were to stop at 8 letters (the initials of a group's name, say), that would be one thing. The fact that it is attempting to be specifically all-inclusive points to your last sentence - it's going to get longer. At some point it simply becomes gibberish to those who are not involved with the movement, and then the attempt to be 100% inclusive turns into snobbish exclusion, instead.

Heh.

I don't. I don't see the point in getting upset about things you have no control over. Besides, I feel that the crap on TV is specifically designed to get folks worked into a froth over relatively minor issues. It's better to keep a calm demeanor and speak rationally.

As for political discussions, I ignore most people. I've found the majority of individuals I've encountered all seem to think they know how to run the world, and if everyone would just agree with them, things would be peachy. Meanwhile, all they do is parrot other people's opinions and then proceed to lecture me as if they were handing down great truth and I should be grateful for them taking the time to "educate" me. In short, screw political discussions. I keep my own council and only open my mouth in the presence of those who can emotionally handle disagreement and do not consider themselves grand intellectuals.

Oh, and I agree with whoever said "politics" is really just about different groups competing over material resources. It has nothing to do with lofty ideals. IMHO, anyone who thinks otherwise, or thinks their politics is anything other than a grab for the biggest slice of pie, is fooling themselves. Everyone aligns themselves with whatever ideology they think will get them the best deal....period.

I do find politics impossibly confusing and thoroughly meaningless at the same time. That is, what I have managed to follow in the past has been so much nonsense. It makes about as much sense as, well, any of the things that start simple and end up only comprehensible to a favored (or really motivated) few. Well, a few that have something I don't, anyway, because I can't can't make heads or tails of things like politics, insurance, the law, taxes, professional sports (not really worried about that one), and unfortunately a lot of things that I really need to know if something were to happen to my husband. It worries me, but I already have a full plate with day-to-day stuff, kids and household, and now trying to work my way through the quagmire of special education legislation and its practical application with real humans in schools who also have full plates.

So getting worked up over whether a politician said one thing and then turned around and said another later is laughable to me. I've already solved that one, gang. They all do that. They're either dirty rat fink liars or they're well-meaning in their own way until they get into office and reality sets in and they have to admit they can't come through after all. Once in a while it gets better. Generally the best you see is a politician who doesn't wear his hair like John F Kennedy (dude, that got old. Did anyone point out that the little droop of bangs across the forehead was also Hitler's look? On the other hand, a quick search shows me that it seems to be a standard men's hairdo... ugh).

And no law ever seems to turn out to be what it's supposed to be, there's always something else tacked on or a misuse that will come of it, someone more wily than I am has written it to serve their purpose while making me think I'm saving the wetlands. Anything that says it's using money for good usually also intends to raise taxes to do it. Any freedom you gain seems to be a freedom lost. If there are exceptions to these rules, I can't get my head around the concepts well enough to tell one from another.

So why follow politics? I'm literal and they're subtle. Oil and water.